Then there were boys. I thought it was really silly of Mummy to keep me away from them. Did she believe it would make me stop thinking about them? Did Mummy think that just because she sent me to an all-girls school, we never talked about boys?

“I’m glad Mummy lets you go to Sarina’s house,” Mohini said to me one day while we were sitting in the kitchen. She was slicing guava.

‘I’m afraid, though,” I said, sprinkling salt and black pepper on the pink flesh of the guava.

“Why?”

“You know Mummy. One day a worm of doubt will wiggle in her head and then she won’t let me go.”

“I don’t think so. She likes Sarina a lot.”

“Yes, but even before Mummy had met Sarina, she let me go to her house.”

“I wonder why,” she said, picking up a slice.

“Because Sarina’s smart?”

“Sweet.”

“Sarina, Mummy, or the guava?” I asked. Mohini couldn’t laugh. Her mouth was full of guava. I ate a slice, and its sweet, tart flavor, boosted by salt and pepper, soaked my tongue.

“It’s not only that Sarina’s smart, her parents are educated and influential too,” Mohini said.

“Don’t forget that she doesn’t have any brothers. Mummy doesn’t have to worry about my seeing any boys. Don’t you think if Sarina had an older brother Mummy wouldn’t like her as much?”

“Mummy would like Sarina the same but she probably wouldn’t allow you to go to her house.”

“Probably wouldn’t? There’s no ‘probably’ about it. She definitely wouldn’t allow me.” Even though I was eating sweet guava my words tasted bitter.

“I know that sometimes you think Mummy lives in the last century, but you have to put yourself in her place. It took her such a long time to find a match for Nimita, and now she has to worry about getting us married. People like Kirti Auntie are of no help and make Mummy miserable. Don’t you see? All Mummy wants is for all of us to be happy.”

“Then why doesn’t she let us do what we want, like Pappa? Wouldn’t that make us happy?”

“Pappa is a man. He doesn’t understand how it is to be a woman. Remember that Pappa didn’t find Girishji for Nimita. Mummy and Foi did. All day long, every day, who’s with us? Mummy, not Pappa. They both love us. Pappa works hard for us, but Mummy molds us.”

“Molds us for what?”

“Molds us so we can live in this society,” she said, picking up another slice of guava.

“I don’t want to be molded. Besides, we have brains up there, not rotli dough.”

“You remind me of Manjari.”

Manjari was a teenage character in Mohini’s favorite novel, Gujaratno Nath. Manjari was arrogant about her knowledge and proud of her intelligence.